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Monday, June 30, 2014

Here's the Judicial Poll That Counts! from the Memphis Bar Association

(Most) incumbents do very well indeed in this most reliable index of opinion: lawyers' verdicts on candidates for judgeships, clerkships, and other law-related offices in the election ending August 7. (And, yes, there are some surprises!)

There have been endorsements of various sort for candidates in the numerous judicial races on the Shelby County ballot, which has 81 candidates listed, altogether — more of them challengers or open-seat seekers tan incumbents.

But, to put it bluntly, most of the endorsements or polls heard from so far have been by self-serving organizations, some of them with little credibility to begin with and others which have diminished such credibility as they had by the manner and mode of their endorsements.

The one poll that almost everyone can take seriously — especially those who labor in the legal vineyards — was released Monday by the Memphis Bar Association.

The corresponding release from the MBA tells more:

The poll was sent to all licensed, practicing attorneys in Shelby County and 1383 attorneys participated. Participants were not required to answer every question. The poll asked attorneys to select the one candidate in each race whom they felt was best qualified to serve. If an attorney did not know the candidates’ qualifications or had no opinion, he/she was instructed to mark “no opinion.”

The poll also asked Shelby County attorneys to vote on whether the judges from the Western Section of the Tennessee Court of Appeals and Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Tennessee Supreme Court should be retained in their current positions. Those retention elections will also be on the August ballot.

“The poll was distributed to all practicing attorneys and judges in Shelby County, and the response was outstanding,” said MBA President Kirk Caraway. “The results reflect the collective opinions of the poll participants, and the MBA is not taking a position regarding or endorsing any particular candidate,” he continued.

“The work of our judges ranks at the very top of importance for the stability of the American System of Justice. Lawyers appear every day in our courts and are best able to determine who is most qualified to preside over the cases brought by citizens seeking justice,” added David Wade, chair of the Judicial Practice & Procedures Committee which oversaw the poll.

Most of the incumbent judges seem to have done well enough to have earned endorsement from their legal colleagues. For that matter, the poll addresses the matter of all those appellate judges up for Yes/No votes on August 7, and they, too, seem to have done well. Also evaluated were the contestants for clerkships and other law-related offices.

Contestants in the open-seat races of all kinds are bunched more closely than those in incumbent/challenger situations, as is surely to be expected.

Without further ado, here is how the judicial poll came out. The poll results are also available at www.memphisbar.org. And the Flyer will publish them again in forthcoming print issues:

2014 Memphis Bar Association Judicial Qualification Poll — What candidate is best qualified to serve? Only contested and retention races were polled. 1383 active Shelby County attorneys participated in this survey. They were instructed if you do not know the candidates' qualifications or have no opinion as to whom is best qualified, please mark "no opinion".

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Victory involves apparent sweep of "battleground" states and tier of Midwestern rust-belt states that had been regarded as safely Democratic; Republicans will also keep control of both houses of Congress.